"Want other mummy, not you!" said the two-year-old, pushing me away when I tried to hug him after work this evening. Oh. Not what I was expecting. Maybe I'd misheard. I tried again - reached out for a hug. "No, you stay there. Want other mummy, not you!" Right so, I hadn't misheard. I tried explaining. "I'm your ...
Ambition. Motherhood. Not always easy bedfellows. When women become mothers, they often see that career progression is hampered. Sometimes because they want flexibility and are therefore seen as less suitable for promotion. Sometimes even without seeking flexibility, they are put on the mommy-track, on the assumption that they're less interested in work. But often, the career progression is ...
This is how it goes in my house: "Kids, dinner's ready, come to the table." Then with a little less patience "Kids! Please come to the table!" Multiply this by pointlessly high number. Give up calling, start threatening and/ or physically lifting them into their seats. Cue dinner responses: Eldest: "What's this? I don't like this dinner. Why do we ...
It's messy here. Marker marks on walls, little piles of folded laundry waiting expectantly but in vain for someone to pick them up, a single toddler shoe sitting on the bottom step of the stairs. When exactly did the kids take over the house? The most obvious sign that the kids have taken over the house ...
Arriving home from work one evening last week, I realised that there was a big, weetabixy handprint encrusted on the back of my trousers. Just about toddler-hug height. There since before I left the house at 7am; visible all day at work. Morto, as they say. Oh well, no time to sit around hand-wringing; there was ...
You never know what day it is - the first sound I hear every morning is the light patter of your small bare feet, and the first words I hear are "Is it morning? What day is it today mummy?" And if I say that it's Saturday, you sometimes ask "Am I going to pre-school today mummy?" And maybe ...
"Look at you in your gorgeous dress!" I said to my friend's five-year-old daughter, then remembered, too late, that I'm trying to avoid telling little girls that they're beautiful. This was prompted by a Huff Post article I read a few months ago that suggested asking little girls about a book they've recently read instead of ...
"Work is a break for me" and "Heading home now to the real job" are some of the comments I used to hear from work colleagues who were parents - this was before I had children myself, and really, I didn't believe them. Surely they were just trying to make themselves sound busier, in a ...
"Take the path of least resistance" was the wise advice from Fiona Kennedy in this week's blog interview. This is certainly the path we took in our house this morning, which is how the two-year-old ended up in our bed at 5.15am watching Mickey Mouse on YouTube. If I'd had chocolate to hand, he'd have had ...
Bedtime doesn't happen as early as it should in our house. Well, the kids usually come down looking for a glass of water or to say they can't sleep, but actually they're not so bad when the initial "OK time for bed" announcement is made - they're usually fairly acquiescent heading up the stairs. It's the grown-ups ...